Beyond the Horizon
by Cursedobjects
Summary: Trapped underneath the mountain range to survive, humanity is constantly hunted down by endless hordes of dragons. Hiding in fear of the ground above, of the beasts that roam the skies above. After the collapse of Maria, humanity is nearing its breaking point. Secrets are unraveled as they begin to find out the truth behind the dragon attacks & why humanity is being targeted.


**So against better judgement I've decided to make another WIP because I couldn't help myself. I hope you like my dragon AU. The story is told in Levi's POV. Enjoy! This story is unbeta'd. Available on AO3 under the same username and title.**

**Warnings: gore and descriptions of burns.**

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He stands beside Erwin, noticing his sister in the crowd. Seeing her listen intently to whatever philosophical and inspiration bullshit that's coming out of his mouth, he caught her eyes and smiled briefly at her. He wasn't supposed to break character, he didn't want the new soldiers to get a false sense of character. Although, he would whip that sense out of them regardless if they saw his softer side. He was a high ranking solider, who had climbed the ladder remarkably easily. He was a well-respected solider and had many kills behind his name. Some had called him a one-man-army. Utterly ridiculous, he thought.

"If this is what you desire in your life, to have a high purpose for keeping the people safe from the beasts outside the Survey Corps is your best option," Erwin shouted full of concealed emotion, reaching the end of his speech. "It is not meant for everyone, you will never be judged for deciding against join. All those who desire to join, remain here."

Once Erwin finished his speech, the number of new recruits left. Slowly at first but then gradually grew to almost the entire mass of recruits. He was surprised at how many of the top ten were remaining. At least 8 of the ten were remaining in their spot, only the fourth and fifth left.

At total there were only 15 cadets remain, many looking like they desperately want to leave, but stood still unmoving. The only person looking stern in what they wanted was his sister Mikasa. When uniforms are handed out Levi was allowed to leave while his sister was informed of her new duties.

As he was walking away Hange approached him, flipping through a clipboard with an astonished tone, "Only fifteen that's a lot less than normal but considering what happened a few years ago I'm rather surprised."

Levi shrugged her off, "Well my sister was coming regardless, the rest I only have gotten reports from Shadis as you have as well."

Hange, nudged him with a grin smothered on her face, "Your sister got top rank, to be honest I'm not really surprised."

Huffing, he agrees. "I would've been surprised if she got less."

She chuckles, pulling him into her chest. "Of course, that good ole' Ackerman gene magic." Pulling away from her grip, as she attempts to mess around with him.

Glaring, he attempted to focus on work: "Any reports from the Garrison? I know around this time is usually their least productive time," thinking on that he remembers that… "Drunken scoundrels can't even find their dick, I doubt they could find a dragon even if it was right in front of them."

Chuckling Hange only patted him on the back.

"We've got a few of our men stationed at the gates, no reports have been sent out" she said, airily. Then Mikasa came near the two, dressed in her new uniform. Hange ruffles his hair before skipping off before he could hit her hand away. "Well I'll leave you alone with your sister."

Alone, the two fell into an awkward silence. It had been so long since he had seen his sister. In fact, the last time he had seen her was briefly before and after the survey's excursions outside. They had been strangers ever since he had joined the military.

Shuffling on his feet, looking into the distance to avoid directly looking at the obvious glare his sister would be throwing his way. "Shouldn't you be getting your things ready for the move."

"Already had that done ages ago."

Rolling his eyes at his sister's predictability, he berates himself under his breath. "Of course, you have." When he looks up at Mikasa, he is somewhat surprised that she wasn't angry at him but rather frustrated with barely watery eyes. "What is it?"

"I haven't seen you in three years that's it," she claims, her voice stern and teeming with concealed anger. Mikasa was always very direct, she never dealt with his shit. To be honest he never had enough time to even think of meeting up with her. "Even Kenny saw me while in training."

Of course, Kenny would. He always liked Mikasa more than Levi but that's because she was blindly obedient, Levi was far more concerned about himself and Mikasa rather than Kenny's shit. The man only used them as front to hide behind when the Military Police arrived on their door. "Kenny doesn't work in the military. I would've come but visitation and my breaks don't align," he lies. Mikasa sees right through him.

"Bullshit," she jeered. he could see the barely contained hurt she was hiding. "You could've come whenever you wanted. No one would've argued."

Yet again the truth. No one would even ask questions. He could walk out of a dragon fight and only his superiors would question and argue. Most either respected him far too much or were far to scared to ask him questions. He sighs, he shouldn't be lying to his own sister. "Yeah. You're right," he admits. "I've just been too busy with everything to think about family."

Levi pulls Mikasa close and hugs her.

"I'm sorry, I'm a shitty brother." She puts a hand on his shoulder, and he gives a slight grunt, but tries to hide it.

"Is it still playing up?" pulling away instantly she focuses her attention on his shoulder.

"I pulled a muscle in our last excursion," Shrugging lightly, "it's been annoying me since then. Nothing major."

Concern plagues her face, as she begins to fuss over him. "Have you seen anyone about it?"

He never truly understood how she could suddenly turn into mother mode. "No, it usually goes away with time."

If possible, her face contorts into a worried expression. "If it's been bothering you since then, I would get it looked out it could be infected or something."

"Look I'll see someone before we leave to HQ alright?" he suggested. Hopefully it will be enough to satisfy her.

"Good." She states. "Take care Levi. See you around."

Rubbing her arm and giving her a final hug, he says goodbye and watches her leave.

After his talk with Mikasa he turns and goes to the stable to find his horse. He was due for a shift to check out the gates soon but needed to meet up with the Survey Corps leaders to discuss future plans. Tacking, his beloved horse Anka was eagerly awaiting him. She was growing restless no doubt due to the small and cramp state of the military stables. The smell was enough to make him withdrawal from the stench alone. Someone hadn't been attending to the horses well enough. Well when the newbies joined, he knew exactly where their use could be used before they faced a dragon head on. Some most quiver those drakes that were grounded to earth, they were not ready to face a fully-fledged creature like those just yet.

**.**

**.**

"You don't think the recruits are full equipped yet?" Erwin questions him as he looked through the soldiers rating.

"No," he huffs. "The only use they will have to use is either dragon fodder or justifying the reason the Survey uniform now has dark brown pants, if they can deal with the drake well then, maybe we could look into it."

Sighing in frustration as Erwin's bushy brows were furled together. "We are low in recruits regardless of the number we received," the commander rubs his temples the beginnings of a headache were obviously starting to get to him. "We're struggling; the king wants to defund us again."

"WHAT?" shouted the new kid, some unknown member who had recently joined. Levi never really paid much attention, it was the first time he had seen him in a meeting with the higher ups. Clearly, he hadn't grasped the rules that operated in these meetings. Despite this he understood the kids outrage.

"Calm down kid," he reprimanded. "It's not the first time this has happened."

"But–" he kid tried to get out before Hange talked over him and ignored the soldiers dismay.

"So, we need more results then," Hange silent fumed. Before cursing. Put her hands up in an exaggerated sense of doneness. "Great. Just great. We so stuck on resources we're barely making it as it is. "

"We've don't it before, it's not impossible," Mike placates. Ever the reasonable one.

"Never said it was. But its right after training," Hange pointed out. He could definitely understand her annoyance. There wasn't a single person in this room who didn't empathise with her. "I don't think they're going to like not being paid for their service for the next month before we can get them new gear."

"Don't worry about that. I'll pay for it."

Levi was a little surprised by that, Erwin was the root of this division, practically birthing it and growing it into a new light. But for Erwin to outright pay thousands for new gear for the new recruits not even the gear that needed fixing for the current ones. There may only be about 15 of them but that's still a lot of money if we are running that low. "Are you sur–"

Suddenly, a loud slam knocked them out of their discussion. Would people seriously stop fucking slamming doors in this shithole, how many times does he have to beat it into their deadbeat skulls to understand. As he was about to shout at whoever decided it was a good idea to interrupt a meeting with such rudeness, he feels his body turn to ice.

The person who slammed the door open was a solider, not a survey member but that wasn't what caught his attention.

Red.

It was fucking _everywhere_.And oh god, the smell. It was unmistakable. He had smelt it often. Burning flesh.

"What the!"

"What happened are you okay?!"

The soldier collapsed on the ground, face heavily burned and scared. The man's hair was singed, and the man's fingers were almost melted together. The skin blistered in such a way it had to be utter agony. "Dragons, southern gate. There's too many. They overwhelmed us. No one else made it. The bell its destroyed."

Erwin rushed forward, attempting to hold the soldier up, Hange grasped the other side for support. "How many?"

"Seven."

Seven fucking dragons. There was no time to dwell on it. He immediately stormed out of the room, ran around the burned solider as he rushed to the bell tower. Everyone needs to be alerted immediately. He pulled on the long, threaded rope, tugged harshly as it began to rock and alert anyone nearby of a dragon attack happening at the Southern Maria gate.

**.**

**.**

Once they reached the gate, the insignia of Maria, ingrained into the stonework. It was raised as soldiers stormed through on armoured horses. Once through the gateway, he saw the chaos that was scattered all over. Fire, ice and large mass of rocks were blown all out of proportion. The sky was practically black. Almost as dark as the night sky only disturbed by the sun hiding behind by the dark clouds. Occasionally the clouds would alight in as flash, the booming sound of lightning wrecked his ear drums.

He could see three dragons still roaming the skies, a fire and an ice elemental. The other was hidden amongst the clouds, using it as a means of camouflage, a storm elemental.

Slumped on the ground were three dragons, all earth elementals. Limbs severed and one was decapitated, gore and blood pouring out at a steady pace.

When the fire elemental neared the ground, pouring liquid fire along the ground nearing a screaming soldier, dressed in the Garrison's uniform did he pulled on Anka's reins and ushered her forward. As the Garrison's officer pushed his horse forward, the flames were ever closing in.

"Propel yourself you idiot! Get out of there!" he shouted as the man remained rooted to his horse in terror. "Oh, for fuck sakes!"

He pressed Anka harder, galloping towards the dragon. Once he was close enough to get the grappling hook into the dragon, he shoots himself up launching himself into the air as he lands on the large redwood tree and then shoots his hooks into the dragon's body.

He nails its ribs and presses the button on his handle to close the distance between the two. One the piston was dug deeply into the beast's body, it diverted its attention on him. the two vividly orange eyes pierced his own grey ones as he manoeuvred himself underneath its body, as it shoots a blast of fire in his direction, only being forced downwards as the beats of its wings forced it down. As the piston wire curls around the beast's belly, he pulls out his knives and uses it to dig into the dragon's side as he landed on the its back. Retracting the wire, he sinks his blade deep into the dragon's neck. Once grounded to the blade, he rushed forward and decapitated the dragon. the beasts head collapsed and fell to the ground bellow before splatting to the ground, skull compressed as it was crushed from the force. As the body begun to slack, he whipped out the blade that secured him to the body before shooting the grappling into the closest tree.

Once he has found Anka he whistles for her. Anxiously, he surveyed the area around him, seeing Erwin and Hange fighting the ice elemental with absolute ease. Mike and other members of the Survey were focused on spotting the storm dragon. Huddled down, close to the branch he saw the Garrison's raise their cannons into the air, before the deafening shot of the canon being shot up high. His eyes followed the cannonball's protectory noting that it was in a completely different direction. A screech was heard deep within the forests sky.

Everything went silent.

Suddenly, the lightning stops. The clouds begin to dissipate.

Everything is disquietingly calm. It wasn't right. Something felt wrong.

Four plus two. The soldier mentioned seven. Where the fuck was the seventh?

As if it heard him, the seventh dragon appears through the dissipating clouds, although you could hardly notice as the dragons gigantic size drowned the ground in darkness under its shadow. Was unbelievably large. It was about as large as the mountains they resided under.

Its massive wings beat wildly, making the trees rustle violently under the force of the air being pushed down. It roared, echoing around the forest that decorated the outskirts of the southern gate. All he could do was stare in awe and horror. It flew so high that his manoeuvre gear wouldn't be able to latch onto it.

Unexpectedly, it flaps its wings with such violence that it flew ever higher, that was when he saw another dragon. latched onto the giants back. What the fuck was going on. Now there were dragons riding other dragons.

Jumping down on Anka, he pushes her forward towards Erwin and the others, never taking his eyes of that dragon. A creature of that size needed coordination and planning.

But before he could reach them, the beast abruptly turned down and dived towards the mountain range.

Time began to slow, as it neared the Marian Mountain before it through the dragon on its back at the mountain.

"Oh shit!" he shouted as the dragon smashed its body into the mountain as it begun to crack, break and crumple, rocks shattering under the earth elementals weight. In front of his very eyes the mountain was nothing but rubble.

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thanks for reading my new fic, i hope you enjoyed it!


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